


Key to the City (In My Heart)

by Rinzler



Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M, do you know how expensive those things are???, okay but seriously what did barry do with the key to the city??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-10 01:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7824067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinzler/pseuds/Rinzler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Len asks Barry to move in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Key to the City (In My Heart)

Barry comes back to his apartment after a long day at work to find Len holding the key to the city the Mayor gave him months ago at the Flash Day Rally, examining it closely under the kitchen lights. The key is glittering, golden, and should be tucked away in a box under Barry’s bed.

“How did you find that?” Barry asks, setting down his bag by the door. Len turns to him and raises an eyebrow. Barry winces. “Right. Master thief. Got it.”

“You hide everything you don’t want me to see under your bed, Barry,” Len says. He turns the key over in his palm as Barry walks over to the kitchen to join him. For a moment they stare at the elaborate golden swirls and inscription. The key looks more expensive than anything else in Barry’s entire apartment.

Barry sighs and leans against Len’s side. “I should probably find a better hiding place, then.”

“So you can hide more secrets?” Len asks, voice just a little too sharp. The fallout from that argument is still lingering, apparently.

In response, Barry presses closer to Len’s side and kisses his cheek. “So I can hide surprises, baby,” he purrs, and enjoys the way that makes Len’s breath hitch. “Now, weren’t you making me dinner?”

“I was?”

“Mm-hmm.”

 

Six plates of bolognese lasagna with porcini-ricotta filling later, Barry has slipped into a pleasant food coma, and is curled up with Len on the couch. The television hums in the background, playing old reruns of Grey’s Anatomy. The rest of the apartment is quiet, the hum of the city fading into white noise as they trade lazy kisses. There’s nowhere else Barry would rather be.

Len, on the other hand, seems to have some place in mind.

“Okay, stop,” Barry says eventually. He picks up the remote and turns the TV off, then sits up on the couch, moving away from Len. “What’s going on?”

Len sits up slowly, looking confused. “Barry?”

“You’ve been distracted the entire evening, Len,” Barry says. “When I came home, at dinner, and now. I mean, I have my tongue in your mouth and you’re still not paying full attention to me! So will you please tell me what’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on, Barry,” Len says. He looks uncomfortable, shifting until he’s staring at the floor rather than looking at Barry.

Barry bites his lip. “Len… Please don’t lie to me. I know something is bothering you. I know, okay? So don’t try to tell me there’s nothing, or that I’m wrong. Just…talk to me. Please?” He says.

Len looks at him. There’s a long silence.

“Okay,” Len says eventually. “Wait here.”

Barry nods, confused, and watches as Len stands up from the couch and walks over to his jacket, hanging near the entryway. He rummages in the left pocket for a moment, then pulls out a small red envelope. Barry tilts his head, curious, and watches Len walk back across the room and sit down on the couch again.

For a moment Len is quiet, simply looking at the envelope in his grasp. Then he takes a deep breath and looks at Barry.

“Been thinking about this for months,” He says. “I was never sure how you’d react to me asking.”

“Asking what?” Barry says. In response, Len passes him the envelope.

Barry accepts it with hands that are trembling slightly. The paper is thick and smooth underneath his fingers, the kind of high-quality only nice stationery will feel like. The envelope isn’t glued shut. Barry flips the flap open, then turns the envelope upside down with one hand, the other hovering underneath to catch what falls out.

Something hard and metallic hits his palm. Barry lowers the envelope obstructing his view and looks at the object.

It’s a key. A thick silver key with the room number 1211 carved into it.

Barry looks hesitantly up at Len. “Is this…is this… Len. Is this a key to your apartment?”

“Yes,” Len says. He looks nervous, looking back and forth between Barry’s expression and the key in his palm.

Barry swallows. The delicate, normal balance of the evening has long since vanished, replaced by the feeling that he’s picking his way through a minefield. He has absolutely no idea how to proceed.

“Does this mean what I think it means?” He asks, hoping beyond hope that it does.

“I want you to move in to my apartment,” Len says, then shrugs, trying to act careless. “I already find your clothes on the floor all the time.”

It’s silent for a minute as Barry looks at the key and Len looks at Barry. Barry can feel his mind whirling, spitting out oh-no’s and what-ifs- among them the fact that he already paid this month’s rent- but his heart already knows exactly what his answer to Len’s question will be.

“Want to add one more to the tally?” Barry suggests breathlessly, dropping the key and envelope on the coffee table. Len stares uncomprehendingly at him for a moment before he begins to smirk.

“I wouldn’t mind,” he drawls, and a second later is tackled off the couch.


End file.
